24 hours global low latency computerized exchange system

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to distributed computerized exchange systems for trading of financial instruments. In particular it relates to a passive matching engine and an active matching engine that cooperates in handling data messages such that less bandwidth is used and so that improvement in latency can be achieved.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for 24 hours global trading of financial instruments. In particular it relates to distributed computerized exchange systems and methods therefor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Traditional exchange systems have primarily been running local businesses offering trading for clients located within the same region as the exchange system. However, the introduction of electronic market places as well as new alternative market places has changed the trading landscape. A market place doesn't have to be local anymore.

A general trend in many electronic market places is therefore to offer a global business. A trader can connect to a trading system from anywhere on the globe.

Together with the global offering comes also a need for extended trading hours. As a result of this some market places are today offering 24 h trading of the same financial instruments such as stocks bonds foreign exchange (FX) etc. It is common for these types of markets to have a trading activity that “follows the sun”. This means that most orders that are sent in to an instrument during a specific part of the 24-hour period come from the location of the sun at that time. However orders may be sent from other locations on earth which are outside of the “normal” trading hours. For example Asian traders send in orders during Asian hours while EU traders send in orders during the EU hours and so forth. An example of such a system is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,259. However during Asian hours EU traders may also send in orders.

A general problem with distributed exchange systems is latency and bandwidth. Minimizing latency and bandwidth has become more and more important aspects of computerized exchange systems, especially with the introduction of algorithmic traders. A primary root cause to latency is the distance between the actual central matching engine and the connecting parties.

For a computerized exchange system that offers 24 h trading with global access this fact becomes a problem since the matching engine normally has one physical location.

A further problem associated with existing systems is the massive amount of information that is created and which needs to be distributed to all participants in the distributed system; this causes bandwidth problems in the systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution for improving bandwidth usage in a distributed computerized exchange system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a solution for minimizing latency in a distributed computerized exchange system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a solution that utilizes system resources in a more efficient way.

At least one of the above objects is achieved by the method and device as set out in the appended claims. Thus, a computerized method is provided for improving bandwidth utilization and minimizing latency in a distributed trading system comprising: a passive matching engine for matching orders, the passive matching engine being connectable to a first group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the passive matching engine, an active matching engine for matching orders, the active matching engine being connectable to a second group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the active matching engine,

the method comprising the steps of: at the passive matching engine receiving an order entry message, adding status data to the order entry message and forwarding the order entry message to the active matching engine, processing the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, sending confirmation data from the active matching engine to the passive matching engine upon receiving the order entry message comprising the status data, sending out the broadcast data from the passive matching engine to the first group of computerized trading terminals upon receiving the confirmation data from the active matching engine.

Hereby the use of bandwidth within the system is reduced by utilizing the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data while waiting for the active matching engine to send back an acknowledgment that the passive matching engine can distribute the broadcast messages. Thereby only one message each way needs to be sent between the passive and active matching engines.

Furthermore by processing the order entry message in the passive matching engine, improvement in latency with the clients connected to the passive matching engine can be achieved since the output data can be sent earlier.

Furthermore the processing of the order entry at the passive matching engine can be executed directly after the order entry message has been forwarded to the active matching engine. Thereby the passive matching engine is ready to directly distribute the broadcast messages when the confirmation data message sent from the active matching engine is received by the passive matching engine.

In the active matching engine a step of comparing the status data sent from the passive matching engine with a current status of the active matching engine can be executed. This is because the two matching engines may be in different states. The passive matching engine usually lags behind the active matching engine. Thus the passive matching engine adds status data that describes which status the passive matching engine belongs to, this is forwarded to the active matching engine together with the order entry message. When the order entry message arrives at the active matching engine the active matching engine either checks its own status with the status received in the order entry message and if it is the same status it sends back a positive acknowledgement if not it sends back its own current status data to the passive matching engine.

In another embodiment the active matching engine may send it own current status data and in this embodiment no comparison is necessary at the active matching engine. Instead the passive matching engine may check what it received back. If it received the same status data that it sent it can continue by starting dissemination of the broadcast data. If it receives a new status data it may start a rollback step.

The method can further comprise a rollback step wherein rolling back changes in the passive matching engine is performed if the confirmation data comprises a different status data compared to the status data added by the passive matching engine. Preferably the rollback step means that the orderbook in the passive matching engine is rolled back to the status it was before and then the processing of the order entry message can continue in the new status mode sent from the active matching engine.

In one embodiment after a rollback step have been executed at the passive matching engine it preferably continues processing the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, after the rollback step.

In accordance with a second aspect a computerized distributed trading system is provided, the system comprising: a passive matching engine for matching orders comprising a passive orderbook, the passive matching engine being connectable to a first group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the passive matching engine, an active matching engine for matching orders comprising a active orderbook, the active matching engine being connectable to a second group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the active matching engine, the passive matching engine being configured to receive order entry messages from the first group of computerized trading terminals, adding a status data to the order entry message, forwarding the order entry message to the active matching engine, processing the order entry message in order to create broadcast data, sending out the broadcast data to the first group of computerized trading terminals upon receiving confirmation data from the active matching engine. Hereby the use of bandwidth within the system is reduced by utilizing the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data while waiting for the active matching engine to send back an acknowledgment that the passive matching engine can distribute the broadcast messages. Thereby only one message each way needs to be sent between the passive and active matching engines.

Furthermore by processing the order entry message in the passive matching engine, improvement in latency with the clients connected to the passive matching engine can be achieved since the output data can be sent earlier.

Furthermore the computerized distribute trading system can comprise a second passive matching engine for matching orders comprising a second passive orderbook, the second passive matching engine being connectable to a third group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the second passive matching engine. Thus the method mentioned above can also be used in the context of two or more passive matching engines and one active matching engine.

The passive matching engine may further be configured to rollback changes in the passive orderbook if the confirmation data comprises a different status data compared to the status added by the passive matching engine.

The passive matching engine is preferably configured to process the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, after the rollback.

Preferably the active matching engine is configured to process the order entry message upon receiving the order entry message from the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, and sending the broadcast data to the second group of computerized trading terminals. Hereby the passive and active matching engine distributes information to their own groups of computerized trading terminals and bandwidth can be saved.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a globally distributed computerized exchange systems.

FIG. 2 illustrates a distributed computerized exchange system comprising a secondary and primary matching engine at each site.

FIG. 3 illustrates a passive matching engine connected to a group of trading terminals and an active matching engine connected to another group of trading terminals.

FIG. 4 illustrates how a 24 hours day can be divided between different sites.

FIG. 5 illustrates the world divided into three time zones.

FIG. 6 illustrates a table showing start time of the different time zones.

FIG. 7 illustrates message transactions between the active and passive matching engines.

FIG. 8 illustrates message transactions and processing when the matching engines are not synchronized.

FIG. 9 illustrates a prior art solution where all messages are sent from the active site.

FIG. 10 illustrates the same situation as FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 illustrates the same situation as FIG. 8.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of computerized method according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in more detail by way of non-limiting examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary globally distributed computerized exchange system 1 in which the present invention can be used. The distributed exchange system 1 comprises three computerized exchange systems 2 and three groups of computerized trading terminals 3 illustrated by a single computer in the figure. Each computerized exchange system 2 comprises a matching engine and all necessary subsystems that computerized exchange systems usually comprise. Example of subsystems can be information dissemination subsystem, a common database, deal capture subsystem and so forth.

FIG. 2 illustrates a distributed computerized exchange system comprising a secondary and primary matching engine at each site EU, US and ASIA. To each site a group of computerized trading terminals are connected T1, T2 and T3. The system can be configured such that failover can occur between the sites as illustrated in the figure. However since each site comprises a primary and secondary matching engine the failover of the matching engine can stay within each site. Thus the critical matching processes may failover within the site whereas less critical functions and processes can failover between the sites. For example the information dissemination subsystem can failover to another site if that subsystem would fail.

FIG. 3 illustrates a passive matching engine 4 connected to a first group of computerized trading terminals 5 and an active matching engine 6 connected to a second group of trading terminals 6. The passive and active matching engines being connected with each other via a high speed connection comprising for example optical fibres, such as black fibres, and other network devices. Furthermore a second passive matching engine (not shown) could be connected to the active matching engine 6 and also connected to the passive matching engine 4. The matching engines 4 and 6 are preferably part of a computerized exchange system comprising a number of additional subsystems as mentioned above.

FIG. 4 illustrates how a 24 hour day can be divided into three different trading sessions wherein the active trading session is moved between the different sites ASIA, EU and US according to the figure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a world map wherein the world is divided into three different time zones similar to FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates a time table showing when each site should start trading, i.e. when the active session should be moved over to the next site.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the present invention when the session states are the same at the passive and active matching engine. The Figure illustrates some steps that can be performed in a response to an order entry. First in a step 101 an order book (OB) sequence number is obtained. If the order entry is received from a passive Site, the order book sequence number is verified in a step 102, see below. It is illustrated how the order entry message is sent from the passive site (US-site) to the active site (Asia-Site) and that the passive site starts processing the order entry message as soon as it has been sent to the active site.

The order entry then tries to match in the local orderbook, step 103. Next, the orderbook is updated in a step 105. Thereupon pre-trade market data is generated in a step 107. Then a private deal message is generated in a step 109, Next trade statistics are generated in a step 111.

When the active site receives the order entry message comprising the status data for example as an order entry associated with an Orderbook (OB) sequence number, it sends a message back to the passive site so that the passive site can start distributing data to its clients, step 112. Meanwhile the active site starts to process the order entry message and also starts distribute information to its clients as illustrated by the arrows.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the present invention using the same reference numbers as in FIG. 7 for the same process steps when the session states differ between the passive and active matching engine. Similar to FIG. 7 it is illustrated how the passive site forwards the order entry message updated with the status data and that it starts processing the order entry data. However since the active matching engine have another sequence number (is in a different state) the passive receives a message that indicates this difference and the passive matching engine instead executes a rollback process in a step 113 in order to change the orderbook to its original status or actually to a status according to the sequence number that it received from the active matching engine. When the orderbook is in this status that corresponds to the status of the active matching engine the passive matching engine starts processing the order entry message again in order to create output data that it can distribute to its clients, in this example to US Clients.

FIG. 9 shows a prior art system wherein the order entry message is only processed at the active matching engine 6 and the output data is sent from the active matching engine 6 to the passive matching engine 4 and then to the clients 7 connected to the passive matching engine. The output data is also sent to the clients 8 connected to the active matching engine.

FIG. 10 shows a situation similar to the one illustrated in FIG. 7. Here it can be seen that the passive matching engine 4 is used to create output data and that when the passive matching engine 4 receives a message from the active matching engine 6 it starts distributing the output data to its clients 7 connected to the passive matching engine.

FIG. 11 shows a situation similar to the one illustrated in FIG. 8, when the passive and active matching engines are out of sync.

FIG. 12 illustrates the steps of a computer implemented method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method is preferably implemented by computer readable code storable on a memory and executable by a computer processor. In accordance with the method the following procedural steps can be performed. First, in a step 201, an order entry message is received at a site associated with a passive matching engine. Next, in a step 203 status data is added to the received order entry message received in step 201. The order entry message is then forwarded to a site associated with an active matching engine in a step 205. The order entry received at the passive site is then processed at the passive site to generate and create broadcast data in a step 207. Next the passive site waits for confirmation from the site associated with the active matching engine in a step 209. Upon reception of such a confirmation the generated broadcast data generated in step 207 is distributed in a step 211.

In the above description the term “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality.

Furthermore the terms “include” and “contain” does not exclude other elements or steps. 

1. A computerized method for improving bandwidth utilization and minimizing latency in a distributed trading system comprising: a passive matching engine for matching orders, the passive matching engine being connectable to a first group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the passive matching engine, an active matching engine for matching orders, the active matching engine being connectable to a second group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the active matching engine, the method comprising the steps of: at the passive matching engine receiving an order entry message, adding status data to the order entry message and forwarding the order entry message to the active matching engine, processing the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, sending confirmation data from the active matching engine to the passive matching engine upon receiving the order entry message comprising the status data, sending out the broadcast data from the passive matching engine to the first group of computerized trading terminals upon receiving the confirmation data from the active matching engine.
 2. A computerized method according to claim 1, wherein the processing of the order entry at the passive matching engine is executed directly after the order entry message has been forwarded to the active matching engine.
 3. A computerized method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of comparing the status data sent from the passive matching engine with a current status of the active matching engine.
 4. A computerized method according to claim 1, further comprising a rollback step rolling back changes in the passive matching engine if the confirmation data comprises a different status data compared to the status data added by the passive matching engine.
 5. A computerized method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of processing the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, after the rollback step.
 6. A computerized distributed trading system comprising a passive matching engine for matching orders comprising a passive orderbook, the passive matching engine being connectable to a first group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the passive matching engine, an active matching engine for matching orders comprising a active orderbook, the active matching engine being connectable to a second group of computerized trading terminals for sending in order entry messages to the active matching engine, the passive matching engine being configured to receive order entry messages from the first group of computerized trading terminals, adding a status data to the order entry message, forwarding the order entry message to the active matching engine, processing the order entry message in order to create broadcast data, sending out the broadcast data to the first group of computerized trading terminals upon receiving confirmation data from the active matching engine.
 7. A computerized distributed trading system according to claim 6 wherein the passive matching engine further is configured to rollback changes in the passive orderbook if the confirmation data comprises a different status data compared to the status added by the passive matching engine.
 8. A computerized distributed trading system according to claim 7 wherein the passive matching engine further is configured to processing the order entry message at the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, after the rollback.
 9. A computerized distributed trading system according to claim 6, wherein the active matching engine is configured to process the order entry message upon receiving the order entry message from the passive matching engine in order to create broadcast data, sending the broadcast data to the second group of computerized trading terminals. 